VOGEL, Chief Judge.
Charlene R. Cardwell, plaintiff-appellee, brought this action against Sherman A. Love, defendant-appellant, for injuries received in an automobile accident occurring on April 8, 1964, at 1:45 p.m. when the car in which she was riding collided with a car driven by the defendant. Diversity of citizenship and involvement of the requisite amount satisfy federal court jurisdictional requirements. The case was tried to a jury and resulted in a verdict and judgment in favor of Charlene Cardwell in the amount of $25,000. Defendant has appealed therefrom. We affirm.
A recitation of the facts as disclosed by the testimony and by a stipulation of the parties is necessary to understand the issues involved. On the day of the accident Ralph W. Anderson, Jr., was driving his automobile in a northerly direction along Highway 13 between Lowry City and Osceola, Missouri. His sister, the plaintiff in this action, accompanied him. At the same time Sherman A. Love, the defendant, aged 83 years at the time of trial, was driving his automobile in a southerly direction on the same highway. The weather was clear, the road surface dry, and the highway at the point in question was straight. One could see a considerable distance in both directions from the point of impact. On the east side of Highway 13 near the point of impact there was a filling station and on the west side a restaurant. The car in which the plaintiff was riding was traveling at 50 to 55 miles per hour as it approached the point of impact. This was well within the Missouri speed limit for that time and place. V.A.M.S. § 304.010, subd. 2(2). The defendant's automobile was traveling approximately 10 to 20 miles per hour as it approached the point of impact. Plaintiff's brother, proceeding in a northerly direction, first observed the defendant's automobile when it was about a quarter of a mile distant. As the automobiles approached each other, he noticed that the Love car was moving slowly and was crowding the center line of the road. Defendant claimed to have had his turn signal for a left turn operating. Plaintiff's brother did not recall seeing defendant signal. When Anderson first observed defendant's car crowding the center of the pavement he, as a precaution, let up on the accelerator and claims to have watched the defendant's automobile closely. Plaintiff first became aware of the Love car when the vehicles were approximately a block and a half apart. When she noticed the defendant's car sort of coming over to the center line, she
"* * * kind of was watching him and the next thing I knew my brother said, `I have got a feeling,\' and I just turned my head sideways to see what he had a feeling about, I didn\'t know what he had a feeling about and I noticed a movement around the floor of the car there and I noticed he had taken his foot off of the foot feed and started — as I started to turn and see what he was talking about, he put his foot on the brake, and as I turned around I saw something moving in front of me, then I heard this screech of the brakes and I hit my head on the door post."
Defendant testified that he at no time saw the Anderson car until after the collision and that he was making a left-hand turn into the filling station. A Missouri Highway Patrolman who was called to the scene of the accident immediately after its occurrence established that the Anderson car skidded 23 paces from the point of the first skid mark to the point of impact and that his footstep is approximately 2½ feet. He placed the point of impact at about 8 feet from the east edge of the pavement; in other words, entirely on the east or plaintiff's side of the highway. Defendant stated to the patrolman:
"I was turning in that station and I don\'t know where he came from, must have been coming awfully fast."
The defendant's car was knocked backwards from the point of impact a distance of 14 paces. It is apparent from the numerous photographs offered and received in evidence that the right front corner of the vehicle in which plaintiff was riding collided with the right front corner of the defendant's automobile.
In appealing to this court, the defendant raises the following points:
1. The plaintiff was guilty of contributory negligence as a matter of law, or, at the very least, the issue was one of fact for the jury to determine.
2. The defendant was not negligent as a matter of law and, therefore, the plaintiff's "right of way" instruction, which effectively directed the jury to so find, was erroneous.
Before the case was submitted to the jury the defendant requested the court to instruct on contributory negligence of the plaintiff. In overruling and denying the request, the court stated:
"I don\'t believe that there is any evidence of contributory negligence for the jury to pass on, and I might state for the record that my version of the evidence is that the only possible claim of contributory negligence would be on the theory of keeping a lookout and duty to warn a driver and all the evidence in the case shows that the driver himself was keeping a lookout and that he had knowledge of the danger as soon as he could and that the plaintiff wouldn\'t have added anything to impending danger by any warning she would give, therefore there couldn\'t be any causation. I don\'t believe there is any evidence she did fail to, but I am not going to submit that, and that is over the objection and exception of the defendant."
We are in complete accord with the trial court's view of the evidence with respect to contributory negligence. Nothing in the record could possibly justify a jury in finding that the plaintiff, a guest passenger in the car, was guilty of contributory negligence which might have been a contributing factor to the collision and injuries. We think the minds of reasonable people could not differ on that point and that Judge Collinson was entirely correct in his ruling.
In a very recent case, wherein the facts are remarkably similar to those with which we are here concerned, the Missouri Court of Appeals in Matta v. Welcher, Mo.App., 1965, 387 S.W.2d 265, held that, at page 270:
"* * * So far as ordinary contributory negligence is concerned, we agree with the trial court that no substantial jury question was made. The circumstances which the defendant would have had the jury consider on this issue were, at least in part, too remote to have a logical bearing on plaintiff\'s contributory negligence at the time of the accident. What is more, we think the defendants mistook the duty imposed on the plaintiff as a guest passenger, if that was his status. While a guest has the duty to warn the driver of dangers which are reasonably manifest or known to the guest in the exercise of ordinary care, the guest is under no obligation to keep a constant lookout and make continuous suggestions. Jenkins v. Wabash R. Co., Mo., 322 S.W.2d 788, 799 14, 15; Ketcham v. Thomas, Mo., 283 S.W.2d 642, 645 1, 2; Toburen v. Carter, Mo., 273 S.W.2d 161, 165 6, 7."
In Jenkins v. Wabash R. Co., Mo.Sup., 1959, 322 S.W.2d 788, the Supreme Court of Missouri was dealing with the charged contributory negligence of a passenger riding in the front seat of an automobile, the driver of which failed to notice a railroad train coming from her right. A jury verdict was had in behalf of two of the guest passengers against the railroad company as well as the administrator of the estate of the driver of the automobile in whch they were riding. The court there stated, at page 799 of 322 S.W.2d:
"* * * We do not doubt that the evidence indicates that Mrs. Hutcherson, the front seat passenger, could have seen the train, but as a guest passenger she was chargeable only with ordinary care, and in the exercise of that care she was not required to keep a constant lookout and to make suggestions to the driver of the automobile in which she was riding. In the absence of visible lack of caution of the driver or known imminence of danger, a guest ordinarily may rely on a driver who has exclusive control of the vehicle. Ketcham v. Thomas, supra, 283 S.W.2d at page 645; Toburen v. Carter, Mo.Sup., 273 S.W.2d 161, 164. Ruby Klein drove the automobile to a position of safety near the tracks and stopped. Therefore, assuming that Mrs. Hutcherson was fully aware of the presence of the crossing and that it was dangerous, this conduct of the driver would indicate the exercise of proper care, not a lack of caution. There is no evidence whatever from which it can even be inferred that within the time that either passenger could have said or done anything to prevent the collision, there was any visible lack of caution on the part of Ruby Klein or imminence of danger known to Allene Jenkins or Mrs. Hutcherson. Therefore, there was no substantial evidence of contributory negligence, and pla
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